Empire Tea & Coffee — Restaurant in Newport

The good: the people and the coffee.

The coffee is worth being proud of, and I would even say that it is worth the premium price. The service is pleasant, and I think that the team is well trained. There have been several occasions where staff is blatantly uncertain about changes to the menu, which I believe to be a failure on the part of higher echelon leadership. I understand that this is a new business, but if it's on your menu, why doesn't your staff know what it is, how much it costs, or where it is in your point-of-sale system's menu? The bad: menu and decor. When I first started coming here, I gave them the benefit of the doubt that it was brand new, so bare wall was (sorta? It didn't have to be bare.) to be expected. Now, it's been open for a while, and the surgically clean walls suck any warmth from the room. There is one or two sad fake plants on top of high walls, which... okay, why even bother? The wall of sticker-covered refrigerators with GOLD hardware is an exceedingly odd and eye-catching detail, but maybe they were hoping to capitalize on the 'grab n go' lunch sales for sailors from the nearby installation?

The chairs (besides three lovely booths that are almost always taken by laptop-toting business folk) are also awful to sit in and make a lovely crunching noise when they scuff against the tile underneath.

The menu is also disappointing. While the variety is halfway decent, I cannot honestly say that I have enjoyed most of the food items available, and I have samples most of the menu at this point. They previously had a lunch item called 'little Italy' that I thought was pretty good, if not a touch overpriced, and they REMOVED it!

The grain bowl is pretty decent. Maybe not 10$ decent, but I liked it.

Lets be frank: every sandwich empire serves is a sloppy, half-assembled mess drenched in tasteless sauce.

Some quick notes about the 'beast', the sandwich I had today AKA the catalyst for this review: -'sizzle sauce' is spiced chipotle mayo... Call it whatever you want, but it was ALL OVER my hands, and not very good. -It fell apart in my hands. I put it down on the tinfoil (was not offered an eat-in plate for some reason and didn't feel like getting up to go ask for one) and ate it with a fork. -When picked apart, this sandwich is just an untoasted plain bagel smothered in mayonnaise, two overcooked egg patties, a slimy sausage patty, and some bacon. -Absolute travesty for 11$!

Some other quick notes about sandwiches I've had here:

Daybreak: weird, unpleasant habanero bacon jam that makes for a strange and damp experience. Oddly sweet with all the spice of a pepper and none of the flavor. Croissant roll is like an unbuttered biscuit, literally the opposite of light and flaky.

Fig&fable: same thing but we added a few leaves and some mustard.

Turkey avocado/ whatever the hell a blat is: decent. Nothing unexpected. Acronym tells you what to expect. Overpriced.

For the love of all that is holy, why are all of your sandwiches so wet? The ugly: price point.

For 30$ today I got: A 24 oz iced coffee A 'big' sandwich. A small, dry muffin.

As I previously stated, the coffee is great! It deserves to stand at a high price point... But everything else does not meet my expectations for almost 3x the price of local competitors.

They are even selling larger than average 'from scratch' cookies for a STAGGERING 6$ next to the register! Pre-made cookies in plastic bags for more than one of your competitors offers a FULL meal for is a strange business choice. Maybe they're hoping that their clientele is too rich to notice?

In any case, I might be back for just the coffee? I think I'm done eating here. Every single time I leave, I cannot help but wonder why I continue to spend 20-30$ on a...

My experience here was very odd, and I genuinely left confused? To start, my grandmother asked for nut milk in her drink, whichever milk was unsweetened and the barista literally brought the boxes out and read us the grams of sugar when Unsweetened was on the front of the almond milk the whole time? She acted annoyed, inconvenienced, and confused when I feel it was a standard request, and I’ve personally been a barista for the past three years. The other staff were kind, but we got two Fig and Fable sandwiches that were served cold. The sausage and egg were warm but the bread and cheese were literally cold, it made for a really unpleasant sandwich and I wanted to ask if it could be heated up but at that point the last thing I wanted to do was inconvenience the staff. Super weird energy in there and confusing experience overall. The menu looked great and the beverage options were numerous, so it has great potential! Perhaps it’s an establishment you have to...

The service is great but everything I get here is kind of awful. I keep trying hoping it will be better. The espresso drinks are extremely weak, feels like their machine is uncalibrated. Every drink here ends up tasting like a cup of milk, no espresso or flavor. Also, they have subbed different alt milks in multiple times, ex: oat for almond, without saying anything. The food is also questionable, bagels are barely toasted and the sausage sandwich tastes like desert with the insane amount of fig jam they added. I’m going to keep going because it’s a convenient location but I haven’t had a single good thing here yet.

Update: asked for extra toasted, wasn’t even toasted. Asked for avocado (extra $2.25) and it was brown. Asked for LIGHT mayo and my bagel...